


The higher you build walls around your heart, the harder you fall when someone tears them down.

by jhlabbe (Lmontague421993)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Detectives, F/F, Hospitals, Lesbian Character, Love, Love at First Sight, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 21:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18558511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lmontague421993/pseuds/jhlabbe
Summary: Life does not always turn out the way we plan, in fact it almost never does.  This is true for Dr. Lena Luthor a brilliant, caring, and world class surgeon working in the city of Boston who has no need for love or family. After all she has accomplished so much on her own without the help of her family or anyone else. That all changes one day when Boston Police Detective Kara Danvers comes into her emergency room changing the trajectory of her life forever.





	The higher you build walls around your heart, the harder you fall when someone tears them down.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I would try a slightly longer story to go with some of shorter one shots. This is the basis of a story I am submitting for a writing contest, which is why I am using real life setting of Boston. 
> 
> This is an alternate universe with the only thing really remaining the same is the personalities of the various characters. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but if you do like it please leave a comment or kudos. If enough people like it I might continue to post more chapters.
> 
> Please be warned in later chapters there will be mentions of PTSD and other details associated with combat veterans. I will issue the appropriate warnings at the beginning of the chapter so that those who might be triggered will be aware.

**_"A loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom"_ **

I remember the first time that I read those words when in high school. At the time I did not understand what the author was talking about. Before I met her I thought that love made people do stupid things, so I never understood the true wisdom behind these words.

I did not come from the most loving of households when I was growing up so I never really understood the power of love. I had closed myself off from love at an early age in order to keep myself from being hurt and poured all of my energy into pursuing my dreams. By the time I was in my thirties I had achieved almost everything that I had set out to achieve. I had a career that challenged and fulfilled me, I had enough money to get anything I had ever dreamed of, and my cat. But, I still felt like there was something missing; it was not something that I was really even conscious of at the time; something just felt off.

Up until this point in my life I had never felt true love. Real true love, that love that makes you forgot about all of your other burdens and problems because you are in love. A love with so such passion that it threatened to burn the whole world down. I would never believe it would take just one girl break through my defenses and teach me how to love; how powerless we are in the face of true love.

________________________________________

As I jogged down the streets of Boston I could see my breath rising thanks to the late autumn chill in the air. I made the same path that I did every morning; I always tried to run the same route everyday without fail. It was somewhat freeing making the run around Beacon Hill. There was something different about the city in the early hours of the morning before the city woke up, even in a city of more than half a million people it seemed peaceful and I could be alone with my thoughts.

Every morning she felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. There was the occasional person and from time to time she had run into trouble with the people of the common. As I made my way the final street on my route I stopped at my favorite breakfast place to grab a cup of coffee.

It was just a small little hole in the wall, quite out of place for this section of Beacon Hill. But, I had been coming here since I had first moved to the city and it served the best coffee and breakfast in the city in my opinion.

"Hey Mario, can I get a..."

But, before I could even finish my sentence he set down a black coffee on the counter. "You know I could set my watch by you. Every day you walk through that door at 6:15 exactly, not a moment sooner and not a second later. Which makes me wonder what do you do when I am not open?"

I smiled and said, "Well, I go down the street and grab a coffee from Starbucks. What is the difference right?"

The old Italian man let out a deep booming laughed, grabbed his heart, and said, "Oww, Doc that hurts."

I smiled wider, the old man knew I was joking. And despite the joking he knew that I would never go anywhere else, he was one of the few people that I actually talked to outside of work. Normally I was a very private person but there was something about this man that made me open up to him. He reminded me a lot of my grandfather before he passed away, and there was no pressure with this relationship, he had no hidden agenda or anything; he just sat behind his counter and listened to me talk about life.

"So, anything exciting happen at the hospital recently?" asked Mario.

"Actually it has been pretty slow lately, which I am glad for it gives me more time to focus on my research."

Mario gave me an appraising look before saying, "Lena if you don't like working in the hospital why don't you move into the medical research field. Your research seems to be all that you ever talk about."

I smiled and said, "While I love my research and I know it will do a great deal in the future there is a great deal of satisfaction that I get from helping others, and working as a surgeon is one of the best ways that I can help people. I guess you could call me a narcissist but if I wasn't a surgeon I would not have been able to help you. And if you were not around who would I talk to and where would I get my coffee from?"

Mario laughed, "Well from what you told me from a Starbucks down the road."

I laughed, smiled and said, "You know that there has not been a day in the past two years that you have not been open. You are even open during blizzards."

He laughed, "One of the benefits of living upstairs from where you work. And besides someone has to give you your caffeine, but I am not going to be here forever. So, much as I enjoy seeing you in my shop every day I would like it if someday you didn't come into my shop."

I looked at him, what did he mean? Was he getting sick of me like everyone else in my life, he must have noticed the look on my face because he continued.

"You know Lena, one day you are going to find someone who is going to make you want to sleep in, to stay in that warm bed cuddling with them, and not be out here running the Common with all of the drug addicts and homeless people. Someone who makes you forget that you are addicted to caffeine because they give you that same rush."

The smile instantly fell from my face and I took the cup and said, "You know that is never going to happen Mario."

I turned around and pushed open the door as Mario called after me, "I don't buy that for one second Lena, everyone has someone out there and you will find yours one day; whether you believe it or not."

I just shook my hand and walked the rest of the way home. Mario really had a way of digging down, I know that he only wanted me to happy and that he looked at me like his own daughter but he still got to me sometimes. I was perfectly happy with my life the way it is now, my work at the hospital and university kept me satisfied I didn't need to depend on someone else to make me happy. People would always come and go, so it was better not to rely on them.

As I got lost in my thoughts I didn't even realize that I had made it back to my apartment. I pulled my keys out my pocket, grabbed the paper off the front step, and opened the front door. As I stepped into the house I flipped on the light. My apartment is a sparse place; the only thing I used it for was a place to sleep at night. Some people might think that it lacks the feel of a true home back I liked it. It was neat, tidy, everything had its place and its purpose, no superfluous items.

I took off my running shoes off and set them on the shoe rack by the door. I grabbed the paper and opened it as I walked through the house to my study. The front page story was that there had been another murder, one of the star witnesses in the case against one of the local gang witnesses had turned up dead in the Fenway area, shot in the back of his head.

I closed the paper and threw it in the trash, there was never any good news in the paper these days. I walked to the bathroom, took off my clothes and turned on the shower. I stepped into the hot shower, it was so soothing on a cold day. All of the tension rolled off my shoulders and when I stepped out of the shower twenty minutes later I felt rejuvenated, revitalized and ready to start the day.

I walked into my bedroom with nothing but a towel on and flipped on the radio. I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of light blue scrubs. With the soft classical music playing in the background I got dressed. As I looked in the mirror I thought about how my life would have turned out if I had listened to my father. He had always wanted me to go into politics or become a lawyer but there was something from a young age that drew me to medicine.

After I finished dressing I went down to the kitchen to fix myself breakfast. After eating a bowl of cereal and an apple while reading one of my medical journals I looked down at my watch and realized that I needed to get going or I would be late for my shift. I rushed out my front door and onto the now busy street. I slipped on my sunglasses and my sweater, even though it was a sunny day there was a bit of a fall nip in the air.

As I walked the back streets of Beacon Hill I saw the old Boston blue bloods and young professionals coming out of their house and starting their day. I could see why people wanted to live there, it was a beautiful section of Boston. I truly loved living in Boston, it had character and an old soul. Even though it was an American city it had more of the feel of an continental European city. The way the streets twisted and turned around the old houses made it feel different from most of the other cities in America.

With the good weather it was a pleasant fifteen walk from my apartment to the hospital. As I walked down the back side of Beacon Hill I saw the hospital looming in the distance, it was still early in the morning and the complex stood out on the horizon.

Massachusetts General Hospital my since I graduated college. I was a attending cardio-thoracic surgeon, though I am double certified in not only cardiothoracics but also general surgery. I split my time between Mass General Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. After I graduated from Harvard Medical School I decided to stay local and ended up doing my residency at Mass General, where I eventually accepted an attending position before becoming the youngest head of the cardio thoracic department in the history of the hospital. Doing some work at Boston Children's I decided to focus on pediatric cardiothoracic surgery.

Today was the beginning of my rotation in the Emergency Department. While most surgeons I work with did not like working in the emergency department I actually enjoy it. I see it as essential to my job and allows me to help the people who need it most. As I entered the front doors of the hospital I walked through the crowded lobby to the nurse's station. I waved to Carole, the head nurse; she was a very kind, older women and said, "I am going to drop this stuff in the locker room and I will be right back out."

"Sounds good Doc, it has been a quiet morning so far. Hopefully, people won't be doing anything stupid today. I have a feeling it is going to be a slow day."

I smiled, Carole had been in the medical field a long time. I am not sure if that is how she developed a brash attitude or whether she was always like that. However, despite how she seemed on the outside she still cared more than most people about the patients that she was in charge of looking after. I could only hope that I could be like her when I had thirty years in the medical profession.

I walked into the locker room and dropped off my bag in my locker, put on my sneakers and tied my hair up into a high ponytail. Then, I walked back out into the waiting area and to the nurses' station, just as I was about to say something to Carole when I saw that she had gotten a call.

When she hung up the phone she said, "Well, my kid just got into trouble at school again. I don't know what I am going to do with that boy. I know this is probably just a phase but he is driving me up a wall with all of this lately."

I smiled and said, "That is why I don't have kids they are too much trouble; I will stick to helping other people's kids get better."

She looked at me and said, "I don't know, he might a pain sometimes but I would not trade my life now for anything; it is my family which makes working here bearable now. I was like you once, so into my job I only wanted to help people and did not like about my own happiness. I promise you that you will meet someone nice, funny, and kind. When you do I hope that you will grab that opportunity with both hands and not let it go."

"You sound like a mother Carole, and I already have one of those I don't need another one."

"I know Doc, but you have been working here for the past several years and I have never once seen you go out with someone or do anything outside of the hospital. I worry about you."

I smiled, I knew that she just wanted what was best for me. "Thanks, Carole, but really I am fine. Do we have any patients?"

She went through the papers and charts, "Yeah, we have a couple of broken bones, some minor cuts that need stitches but nothing major, one drunk homeless guy in bed two."

"Okay, give me the first one and let's get started."

She handed me a chart, and I walked out to the waiting room. I pushed the doors open and said, "Robert?"

The next several hours dragged on, Carole was right it was a pretty slow day. But, little did I know that was all about to change; and both my day and my life was about to be thrown into chaos. I had just finished up setting the broken arm of a college student who had broken it skateboarding when it happened.

I walked back to the nurse's station and handed Carole the boy's chart. "I can't believe that boy got into MIT he is such an idiot."

Carole just laughed, "Well, do you think we should let them know that one of their students broke their arm because he thought that he could defy gravity?"

I laughed, "No, but..."

I was not even able to finish my sentence before the doors to the emergency room burst open. Carole and I ran over to the stretcher. "What happened," I asked in my most professional tone.

One of the EMT's looked at me and said, "We have two incoming patients, first a 29-year-old female police officer, two gunshot wounds, only one exit. She was shot in the abdomen, but she has lost a lot of blood we have already given her two pints on the way in. The second a five-year-old with a minor concussion and small lac on the arm. Looks to be the second bullet from the first."

The woman was yelling, "Lucy, Lucy, can someone tell me if Lucy is okay."

I first moved over to the child first, the wound did not look that bad, it was going to leave a mark but it didn't look like the bullet hit any major arteries or would cause any permanent damage.

The girl was crying, "It hurts, it really hurts."

It broke my heart to see the girl crying. "Is your name Lucy?" I asked the girl. She nodded, "my name is Dr. Luthor I am going to take care of you. You just stay strong and stay with me. So, are you in kindergarten or first grade?"

"First grade," Lucy rasped out between sobs. "Are you an angel?"

"No, I am just a doctor you are going to be fine. This is Carole she is going to take good care of you while I check on the police officer okay."

I turned to Carole and said, "The child is stable, get her to one of the examine rooms so that one of the residents can take a look at her. She seems to be okay physically, probably just a couple of stitches but I would order a CT to make sure the concussion is not too bad. I would also give her something to relax her."

Carole nodded and said, "Lucy, it is going to be okay. I have something that will make you feel better."

As they disappeared down the hall I went back over to the other stretcher. I looked down at the other woman, she was covered in blood and was losing more by the second. But, somehow she was still awake and I said, "Ma'am can you hear me? I'm Dr. Luthor. I'm the surgeon on duty right now. You only have one exit wound which means that one of the bullets is still lodged inside, you are losing a lot of blood."

The woman looked up to me and said, "Is she safe?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, the wound is not that bad she will be as good as new in a little bit. Probably will only leave a small scar."

The woman smiled, "That is great to hear. Is it me or is it cold? Well, I never thought it was going to end this way, three tours of duty and I am going to die a mile from my house. Well, I wonder if it is heaven or hell for me."

That simple statement crushed me, the woman didn't think that she was going to make it. "Not if I can help it, you are going to live a good long life but I need you to stay with me."

The officer barely nodded before she slipped off.

"B.P. 180 over 100. Pulse is 50. She is going into shock."

"I turned to the nurse who was standing next to me and said, "I am going to need a couple of pints of blood it is bad. The bullet must have hit something."

The nurse nodded, and we pushed through the doors to the operating room. We wheeled the stretcher over to the operating table, and I reached under the officer and grabbed the sheet.

The operating was buzzing around me, but I tried to tune them all out. "On my count. One. Two. Three!"

As we lifted her up onto the bed one of the nurses cut off her top so I could get a better look at her wound. As they cut it off I saw that this was not the only scar that she had, the left side had a long mark down it along with some burns that have seemed to healed. I did not have much experience with this type of trauma but it looked to me like she had been in an explosion.

As the nurses finished prepping the room I noticed that she was also wearing dog tags, I glanced at them quickly and noticed that they said Captain Kara Danvers, US Army. I looked up at the head nurse and said, "She is a veteran and from the looks of it she survived the war so lets make sure that she does not die here today. 10 blade." The nurse nodded and handed me the scalpel as I made the first incision.

After several hours of surgery, I emerged from the operating room. It was a difficult surgery, not the most difficult that I had ever done but it was pretty bad. She had been shot in the abdomen, it should have been nothing major, but during the surgery she coded twice. It also took me longer than usual to find the bullet, which prevented me from sewing up the wound and stop the bleeding.

The young woman was lucky not even an inch to the left and the bullet would have hit her abdominal aorta, and she would have bled out almost instantly. As it stood, she would most likely be back on her feet in a few days time, and she would be fully functional again in no more than six weeks. As I tossed my dirty scrubs into the basket in the locker room and pulled on a new pair I decided that I should go and see the the little girl to make sure that she was doing okay and update her.

The child's wounds were not nearly as bad as the officer's and they were not life-threatening but I still want to see how she was doing. So, after cleaning up I walked out to the nurse's station to see Carole sitting behind the counter working on some charts.

"Hi Carole, how is the girl doing?"

Carole looked up from her paper and said, "She is doing well doctor, she is recovering in one of the rooms on the second floor. The resident gave her some medication and she is sleeping. The hit to the head was pretty serious, and they had to give her a couple of stitches for the laceration on her arm; the doctor wants to keep her here until they can find her next of kin."

"No one has been in to see her? No parents?"

Carole shook her head, "No, we can't find anyone. She says that she doesn't have any parents and just keeps asking about the officer."

"Have we contacted the Boston PD regarding the officer?"

Carole nodded and rifled through some of the papers on her desk. "Yeah, we sent over her name and picture and they confirmed that she is Kara Danvers from the third precinct over in Southie, that is a rough area right now, with everything that has been going on."

I nodded, "Has anyone been in to ask about her?"

"No, the only thing that they said when we called was that she had the day off today. That is as much of an answer as you are going to get until either the detective or the girl wakes up; they didn't have any idea who would have shot her. I am sure you will be able to get all of the answers from them."

"Let me know if either of them wakes up, I have some work to do. If anything else happens let me know, you know where to find me."

Carole nodded, "Sounds good Doc it has been a quiet morning other than those two, if anyone else comes in I will let you know."

I turned back and headed to the on call room. Who were this detective and little girl, and why were they shot. Were they merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, or was there something more to this; there was something about this that just didn't add up. My inquisitive brain was going a mile a minute I needed something to distract me until one of my patients woke up.

As I sat down I grabbed some of the patient's charts that I had neglected because of the surgery and started to finish them up. After finishing up my charts I pulled up some of my research on my computer, Mario was right my first passion had always been researching. Right now I was looking at ways to reduce the recovery time from open heart surgery. As I started to pour over my notes and add some new data from my most recent surgeries.

"Dr. Luthor, you wanted to know when the young girl woke up."

My head shot up from my computer, and I snapped out of my paperwork induced haze and said, "Yes, is she awake."

The nurse nodded and I grabbed my lab coat off of the back of my chair and ran out the door, almost knocking over the nurse. "Sorry, and thank you very much I appreciate it."

As I entered the room I saw several of the nurses crowded around the bed taking readings off the machine and updating her chart. But, as I approached they looked up and handed me her chart.

"Dr. Luthor the readings all seem normal but all she has said is to ask for someone named Kara over and over again. I am worried that there might be permanent brain damage due to some complication from the medication."

I looked over the chart, all of her readings seemed normal. There didn't seem to be any permanent damage, the nurse was probably just overreacting. "I will talk to her, why don't you go get me some new bandages."

The nurse nodded and walked out of the room, I cautiously walked over to the bed and sat down in one of the chairs. The little girl looked at me, and I could see that there was fear in her eyes, "Kara, I need to see Kara."

I put my hand over hers and said, "It is okay, sweetie." I smiled trying to calm down the girl.

"You are the angel from before right?"

"No, I am just a doctor, not an angel. Can you tell me how you are feeling?"

The girl looked me in the eyes and said, "I am ok, I guess my arm hurts but I am fine. My mother always told me that I should be strong."

I smiled this girl acted a lot older than she looked; she reminded me of myself at that age. "Your mother sounds like a very smart woman I would love to meet her. Do you know her phone number?"

In an instant the bright smiled that had been plastered on the girl's face vanished, "she died last year along with my Dad. Big sister El told me that they were both heroes and have gone to live with Nana and Papa in Heaven"

"Oh, so you live with your older sister?" Where was this older sister of hers I thought to myself. She must have noticed that the little girl was missing by now, I would have to talk to her when she got here.

The child's smile was back. "No silly, El not my real big sister she is like you. She watches over me, she knew my father, she worked with him before he left."

"Oh, so Kara takes care of you, and what did your father do with El?"

The girl looked back at me, and said, "My daddy was a policeman." And with that simple statement, it all clicked into place, El must be the women in the other room. Of course, she was how could I be so silly that would also explain why no one checked in on the girl or the officer. If they were supposed to be together then they would probably not be missed for a little while.

"You were with Kara this morning, right? Do you remember what happened?"

The little girl stared at me for a moment and for a second I thought that maybe she didn't remember anything. The human brain has the remarkable ability to forget in order to protect itself from trauma.

"It is not her fault, she was taking me to the park to feed the ducks. As we were feeding them out of nowhere I heard these popping noises and big sis pushed me down and I felt like got a really bad bee sting on my arm. Then, I don't remember anything except for the blood from big sis, and you telling that you would help me. Is Kara here, I would really like to see her?"

I looked down at her, now with some of the gaps filled in it made a bit more sense. "I am sorry, she is still asleep right now, but I promise as soon as she is awake I will have one of the nurses bring you down to her. For, now how about I get on of the nurses to bring in some movies for you to watch. How does that sound?"

The girl smiled and said, "Yay, do you have any superhero movies? That is what me and El watch together."

"Of course," I said rubbing her hair. "A girl after my own heart, I think that we have a couple of the movies if you want." She looked at me bright-eyed and nodded her head. I laughed and said, "Okay I will go get one of the nurses. I will check in on you later."

As I stood up, the little girl reached out and grabbed onto my lab coat and said, "Can you stay here with me? I don't want to be alone."

I looked at the girl, she looked so scared. I couldn't even imagine what was going through her mind. It must have been a very tough day for her, and I didn't want to leave her alone. I was sure that one of the nurses would page me if I was desperately needed for something so I nodded and said, "Sure, I will stay with you. Let me just go get a nurse so they can get us that movie."

The girl smiled and let go of my coat. As I walked out of the room, I almost bumped into the nurse bringing the new and bandages. "I will take those, and do you think that you could go grab the movies on my desk can you bring it here?"

The nurse nodded and headed off again. I went back into the room and said, "The nurse is going to get it, now before we get to have fun it is time to change your bandages."

The girl made a face, I smiled and said, "I know that it is not fun, but it needs to be done. I promise that I will be quick."

As I got to work the girl said, "Thank you, angel. You are just like Kara; you are really nice. I think that you two would get along really well."

"I am sure that we would, you will have to introduce me when she wakes up."

As I finished up changing her bandages the nurse walked back in with the DVD. I took it from the nurse, thanked her, and informed her that I was off but that I would be staying here with Lucy. Then, I put in the DVD and sat back down in the chair.

"Can you sit with me?"

I looked up at her and seeing the look on her face I just couldn't say no. "Sure."

As I climbed into the bed with her, she moved closer to me and rested her head on my chest. And for just a moment I realized what Carole was telling me earlier; there was something comforting and soothing about being with this child right now; even though my shift had ended I was in no rush to get back to my apartment. As the movie started, I looked down at her and for the first time since she came through the doors of the hospital, the child looked at ease.

About twenty minutes into the movie she fell asleep in my arms. As I stared down into her sleeping face my mind started to wander. I was curious to find out more about this girl and the mysterious police officer in the other room.


End file.
